


Slow Down

by constellayetion



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Sokka Has Two Hands, Sokka-centric, Zukki nation, unpacking Sokka's trauma hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25659403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constellayetion/pseuds/constellayetion
Summary: Sokka does things fast.He reads fast. He talks fast. He drives fast. He eats fast, shoveling food in his mouth so quick Katara says he'll choke. He does everything fast.So it really shouldn't be so much of a surprise that he falls in love fast.
Relationships: Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 356





	Slow Down

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! Uh...my other work I just finished became Sokka's Trauma Hours so now... more! I mean...there's also like...sweet, sweet Zukki getting together. But also trauma. Love what you love, I guess. 
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, if I don't respond right away it's because I have no concept of time but I still love your comment and love you, also feel free to [ hmu on tumblr ](https://constallayetions.tumblr.com/)

Sokka does things fast.

He reads fast. He talks fast. He drives fast. He eats fast, shoveling food in his mouth so quick Katara says he'll choke. He does _everything_ fast.

So it really shouldn't be so much of a surprise that he falls in love fast. 

He falls in love fast and hard and never really gets over it. Like, ever. It’s a problem.

But, it makes him careful. That’s fine. Sokka can be careful. He can engage...carefully. 

So, he has rules. He spaces dates out to only one every other week. He has a strict two text limit on potential partners (that he literally had to code and then get Teo to re-code because he kept trying to hack it). He doesn't date anyone in his classes. Hell, he can barely look at people in his classes (after that one disaster time that Sokka almost got a B after falling in love with the boy in the front row who rejected him with just, “I’m straight and don’t know you so…”) and always sits in the front row and almost buys himself blinders like a horse when even that barely works. He doesn’t ask people for their number, or a date, or their name, or their undying affection the first time he meets them. 

Sokka is careful. Very careful. Extremely careful. 

And he’s happy with his friends. He is happy with avoiding every romantic relationship, point blank, period. He’s happy living with so many rules that it stifles any spark from forming because he doesn’t know how to have a spark that doesn’t lead to blowing himself up. He is _happy_ with being alone (with friends) for the rest of his life because everyone he falls in love with leaves him in some way and it never stops hurting, so it's fine.

But then, Suki happens...hard. And fast. 

Sokka meets her on spring break, while she visits one of their mutual friends. 

They fight at a martial arts meet. She kicks his ass. He buys her cheese fries. It falls apart from there.

The problem was...she was exactly the same as him. Just, luckier maybe. She would fall hard and fast, but manage to keep some of them. Like Ty Lee, who she was visiting.

Still, she almost didn't see Ty Lee at all that week. Because...well, Sokka and her almost never separated that entire week. And by that, Sokka means, they left each other to go to the bathroom and that was basically it.

From the dining hall of the gym, they went to the park next to Sokka's apartment to Sokka's apartment to the takeout down the street, back to Sokka's apartment and before Sokka even realized it was two am and he was in love with her.

Which he realized after watching her accidentally stub out a cigarette in her sandwich (they were a little drunk, don’t judge) and then painstakingly cut out the ‘contaminated area’ with a pocket knife because ‘it’s gyro, Sokka, it’s too good to waste!’. And Sokka knew, right there, he was _gone_.

He told her two days later. After she stammered out her own confession of, "I know this is early and its only been a few days and people may think this is dumb but I know how I feel and I know what it means when I feel like this and I really, really like you and, I think— I think— I think I'm— "

And Sokka cut her off with a kiss and whispered against her mouth, eyes closed, his forehead and against hers, so scared of how this would end, "I love you too."

Then, they spent all the time together they could. Sokka still got nervous when she walked down stairs too fast and Suki would still grab the back of his collar when he got too wrapped up in her to properly look at if his feet were on the sidewalk or in the street. It was good. It was amazing. They were in love. 

Of course, the week ended, Suki had to go back to her school, and Sokka actually got Teo to take the encryption off his phone for this one contact (well, actually, Suki got him to, vouching for him even as Teo laughed nervously and stammered "yep, of course, I really hope the best for you two") and then it was class and calling Suki and eating and texting Suki and sleeping and Facetiming Suki so they’d both fall asleep and wake up together (well, Suki would read while Sokka fell asleep hours before here and Sokka would wake up to her sleeping face and they’d love it anyway). 

They got a month in before the two of them admitted it was a problem. Like, their friends hadn't seen them in days, type of problem. Like, both of them _ached_ all the time because they missed each other and tried to make up for it by spending all their time together which just made it _worse_.

But, they loved each other. A lot. They would make it work.

They weaned off each other, Teo put a new limit on his phone, and Sokka and Suki put up new rules of how to love each other and continue being functional human beings that weren't kind of falling apart because they lived in different states. And then it wouldn’t get like the Bad Time. The time it got so bad that Sokka’s roommate fully thought he had basically moved into her place. 

Speaking of Sokka's roommate, Zuko was...easier.

Well, not easier, not really.

Sokka just didn't realize it. He didn't even have a chance to put up any defenses. 

The day it hit him, it literally felt like getting run over by a bus. Well, actually, Sokka did almost get run over by a bus. 

Sokka had been texting him, leaving a lunch ~~date~~ hangout that they had every other day (alternating who gets to pick, which meant Zuko would always cook and bring it in a basket like a cliche bastard and Sokka would always manage to find a new, cheap street-food place to pick up from) and Sokka hadn’t even made it ten minutes without already sending him a text of a bird that reminded Sokka of him and ‘hey, also, do you think that the dinosaurs would think us or bird are more developed as a species?’. Zuko had sent him a ‘shut the fuck up’ and another bird that did look like it had Sokka’s undercut within thirty seconds and a Sokka made the mistake of pressing a button that selected their text conversation and there, in nice, neat little text it showed the number of messages. 

_3, 257_

With the phone that Sokka reset two months ago. 3,257 messages in two months. That was 53 messages a day. That was _way_ over the limit he had set.

More than two messages a day. _53_ messages a day. Basically _dates_ every other day. His life becoming so intertwined with his, going to every party together and finding a class to take together each semester and eating breakfast together and Sokka throwing cheerios at him and...

Sokka was in love with him. 

And that was the point Sokka heard the bus. 

Brakes screeched and it just barely stopped, tapping lightly-ish but not actually lightly at all on Sokka’s hip and Sokka stared at it, still floored. 

Still in the middle of the street. 

The driver laid on the horn, again, how many times had he done that? and Sokka finally got the cue to get out of the road, yelled out an apology and took off. 

He was in love with Zuko. 

He was in love with Zuko. 

He was in love— 

Within minutes, he found himself in one of the big, single-occupant bathrooms on the bottom floor of the library, his breath catching because he couldn’t breathe, haha, it wasn’t working, why wasn’t it working, why was it— 

He was in love with Zuko. He was in love with Zuko. He was... 

He was going to fuck it all up. Tonight, probably. He would walk in and Zuko would be dead. No, Zuko wouldn’t be dead, but Zuko would _know_ and Zuko would never want to talk to him again. No, Zuko wouldn’t know but Sokka would see him and start crying because now that he thought about he really was so beautiful and now that Sokka knows he won’t be able to avoiding seeing it and would start sobbing and then Zuko would be so concerned and demand the landlord break his lease so he wouldn’t be stuck with this nutjob. And then Sokka would have to find a new roommate. Who probably wouldn’t have mini-food fights with Sokka whenever they found expired food. No, it would be fine, it would be fine and they would talk like adults and Zuko would calmly tell him that he wasn’t interested in becoming a fuck-buddy for his overzealous roommate that obviously could not be capable or worth anything past that and that he could either chop his dick off or move out because that was truly disgusting and he was disgusting to suggest it. No, it would be fine and Zuko would smile at him in that way he does when Sokka brings him a bun that he made himself and didn’t manage to burn and Zuko would kiss him and kiss him and kiss him and then would go to do the dishes and turn on the garbage disposal for the egg shells that Sokka forgot about and it would suck Zuko’s whole arm into it and grind it into a powder. 

It was going to be a disaster. 

He was going to be a disaster.

He already was a disaster. 

He was pressing his head into the tile of a _disgusting_ bathroom floor in the hopes it would stop his brain from leaking out of his ears, like it feels like it would any second. 

So, he did what any sensible person would do when they realized that they had fallen in love with their roommate, probably quite a long time ago, actually, and was literally about to throw up over it. 

He called his girlfriend. 

It rang. 

And rang.

And— “Sokka?” Suki’s tired voice said and, yeah, fuck, it was probably like 9 am there and Suki usually wasn’t a person until at least noon. 

“Sokka? I thought we weren’t supposed to talk again until tomorrow, you know, Katara said—”

“I’m in love with Zuko.”

She stopped. 

“Oh.”

“Suki, I’m going to ruin everything, I’m like, proper in love with him. Like, I’m gone. The train has fully left the station. The bridge has collapsed under faulty supports. I’m ruined, Suki. Suki, it’s all—”

“Okay, um, Sokka, hey, hey, Sokka, darling, listen to me.”

Sokka exhaled, shaky, and said, “Okay.”

“Yeah, okay baby. First off, everything is fine. Everything is completely fine and you’re okay. And second, are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m uh— I’m in a bathroom. On the floor. But, I’m fine! I might have almost gotten hit by a bus, but I’m fine! Well, I’m… I’m… I’m in a bathroom. Yeah.”

“Okay, well, that’s good. Great place to...take care of business right?”

Against all odds, Sokka laughed. “Suki, that’s disgusting. I hate you and you’re gross.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know.”

“I love you.” Sokka said, quickly, suddenly overcome with the need to say it. “I love you so much. I wish I could be with you, all the time. You’re so beautiful and lovely and deserve every good thing in the world. If cheese fries weren’t a thing I would invent them, just because I’d know you’d love them. I would invent pasteurized milk for it, I don’t give a fuck, I would invent the entire pasteurization process for you. I would talk to a cow, I would _milk_ a cow, and deal with their horrible, horrible legs that could break my skull open like a coconut to—”

“Okay, Okay, Sokka, I know.” Suki said, a smile in her voice. When Sokka gets stressed, he always gets over-romantic. Which he knows but it doesn’t stop him from trying to say it.

“I’m serious. The first time I saw you I thought that I had discovered a new emotion. I looked in your eyes and found new colors. I heard you laugh and discovered new music that no one had heard before.”

“Okay buddy, go tell the English minor this.”

_Oh fuck, the English minor_

“He’s gonna hate me Suki. I know it. He’s gonna hate me. Or he’s gonna die. Or I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die or he’s gonna die because if he hates me I will die. I know I always say that, but it’ll actually happen. I’ll never get over it. I’ll have to dig a grave in the backyard where only the worms will see me. I’ll have to legally change my name to Not Applicable because I’ll never be able to speak to anyone again. I’ll have to—”

“Sokka.” Suki said. 

“Yes, darling.” 

“Sokka, I love you. And I'm fine. Neither of us died.” 

His chest tightened and the room felt all the cooler and it finally felt like his blood was pumping in his veins again, no longer oozing out his fingers and into his phone microphone. 

“Okay.” Sokka said. “Yeah, I love you, too.” 

Suki laughed over the phone and Sokka felt it fill the whole room and felt the color returned again, the walls were the sticky, terrible blue instead of a tunnel, blurring at the edges. 

Suki said, “Do you know if he’ll be back at your apartment?”

Sokka nodded, which he then realized that Suki couldn’t see, but she continued anyway, somehow…

“I’ll stay with you on the walk home. Do _not_ get hit by a bus.” 

Sokka laughed and managed to rinse his face off before walking back, hoping to not be too much of a disgusting mess when he ~~gets rejected~~ confesses his love to his roommate and best friend. 

Suki regaled him with the story of the roller-skating girl in the coffee shop she works at who was simultaneously hot as fuck and dumb as a brick (according to Suki, who uses that as a synonym for hot as fuck, elite version because she hates the other STEM majors) and how she crashed through all the cups Suki was holding and also into Suki’s arms and Suki fully had to go to the backroom to stop herself from begging for a date right there. She promised she has to see her two more times before asking for her number, following the rules that Sokka and her kept to keep both of them from going literally insane over half the people they meet. 

“Hey, Suki?”

“Yeah, Sokka?”

“I’m here. Fuck. I’m at the apartment.” 

“You’ll do great sweetheart. You deserve all the love in the world. Go get ‘em tiger.” With that, she whispered ‘I love you’ again and Sokka couldn’t, wouldn’t respond right then but he heard the click of the phone hung up. 

He leaned his head against the door, ignoring the slightly loud ‘thunk’ it made and gave himself one moment to sit and pity himself and— 

The door swung open. 

“Hello?” Zuko said as Sokka promptly tumbled forward onto him. 

“Fuck” Sokka said.

“Ouch” Zuko said. 

“Guess I should go now.” Toph said, making her way off the couch and to the door, snapping a photo as she left. 

“You can’t even see that!” Zuko yelled after her, to which she only responded with the bird, and resoundly kicking the door closed behind her. 

“Hi.” Sokka said. 

“Hi.” Zuko said. “Is there a reason you’re...uh...sitting on me?”

And Sokka realized, in a rush, he was indeed sitting on him, which was a gentle way to say, laying on his torso and probably crushing his ribs. 

“Umm...no?” Sokka said, not getting off of him. 

“Okay.” Zuko said. 

And then Sokka made the mistake of looking at him at the same time that he looked back and he saw those eyes and that warm smile that was reserved for when Sokka was doing stupid, stupid things (similar to the one for small animals and toddlers and Mai, when she literally didn’t realize she was in love with Ty Lee after everyone else knew. Except Ty Lee. Which, hindsight, Sokka shouldn’t have judged them so hard for) and he saw the big scar that everyone notices from his asshole dad that Sokka wasn’t there for along with the small scar that no one notices from when he hit himself with the microwave door while not trying to wake up Sokka at 5:45 AM that Sokka was there for and had to bandage in the bathtub. He saw the still flushed cheeks from last week when he convinced Zuko to stay with him, Sokka’s head burrowed in his lap, in the park for hours without any sunscreen and Zuko had had bright red arms for three days. He saw _years_ with the guy that he should have realized by now, was obviously love, desperately love, not obsessive and codependent in the way Sokka always avoided, always was scared of, but that hit him from the side anyway. 

Because it wasn’t...obsessive. It wasn’t codependent. 

It was the kind of love that didn’t burn, didn’t even hurt at all. The love that let him go to his class and feel alive instead of wanting to skip every single one to follow his crush’s every whim. The kind that let him let Zuko cross the street, plug in his own cell phone, use the garbage disposal even, without convincing him that he’ll finally die and it’ll be all Sokka’s fault. Without convincing him that he needs to let Sokka do it all or it would lead to a sure-fire funeral. The kind that lets him enjoy their friends being over without hating them for every second Zuko spends not looking at him. The kind that lets him relax. The kind that lets him breathe. The kind that lets him sleep, peaceful, his neck awkwardly on Zuko’s shoulder instead of compulsively spending every moment awake, sure that this day would be the last chance. 

Sokka realized this one, this _one_ , was one that he wasn’t scared of. 

And that was terrifying. 

So, he fell off him, cracking his head straight into the floor. 

“Oof.” Sokka said. At the revelation, or the skull-hitting-hardwood part, who knows. 

So, Zuko said, “You alright buddy?” 

At the same time that Sokka said, “I’m in love with you.”

And Sokka squeezed his eyes shut, sure the silence meant...whatever Sokka’s terrible stomach feeling thought it meant because his brain was not able to string things into words right now. 

So, he sat, he simmered, he stewed, he...softly, felt his jaw move and Sokka opened his eyes. And saw Zuko, looking at him with those eyes. 

Those golden, bright, crinkled at the edges eyes. Those beautiful eyes, smiling at him. 

“I know.” Zuko said. 

_Fuck_

“Wh— Why didn’t you say anything?”

Zuko shrugged, his eyes shimmering at this point but maybe that was actually Sokka’s eyes, misty in the light, “I know how things have been for you. I wanted you to be comfortable.” 

"Do you— I mean...if you...I mean...you never said anything." Sokka stammered, scared, needing to give Zuko one final out, one final way to bail, one final opportunity to reject him. 

Which he didn't take. 

Instead, he traced his jaw, gently ran the back of his hand against his cheek and let Sokka press his face into it, and said, without a hint of doubt, “I’m in love with you too."

“Come again.” Sokka whispered. 

“I’m in love with you.” Zuko said, with that lovely, wonderful smile. 

“One more time.” Sokka asked. 

“Sokka. Darling. I’m in love with you.” he said and Sokka moved, carefully, and let the distance close bit by bit. As Zuko’s lips met his he knew, he _knew_ , he might still worry, he might still go too fast, rush in to avoid losing anything, he might still wake up, scared of dead lovers in the night, but at least he wouldn’t do it alone anymore. 

He had two amazing people to help him slow down.


End file.
